UCL celebrates the best of public engagement

The Provost's Public
Engagement Awards celebrated staff and students' contributions to the local
community and further afield, to coincide with the 10 year anniversary of UCL's Public Engagement Unit.

The annual awards ceremony recognises the hard work of UCL staff, students,
and their community partners in making the university's research and teaching accessible
to the wider world, which is a principle theme of UCL's 2034 strategy.

In 2018, the Provost awarded seven prizes and
commended more than 50 teams and individuals for their efforts and
achievements: from students to established academics, professional staff and community
partners.

The
award-winning projects illustrate UCL's
distinctive approach to public engagement, characterised by a focus on collaborative
models of engagement, the involvement of diverse and often underrepresented public
groups, and a spirit of experimentation to encourage wider learning.

Among the award
winners was Extreme Citizen Science (UCL Geography). This research group received
an award for empowering citizens to explore and experiment with the world
around them through more than 500 innovative workshops and events organised in
nine European countries. The Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE)
was recognised for 'Know Your Normal', a research project focused on understanding
the experiences of mental health in young autistic people.

Also awarded was Dr Andrea
Rigon (UCL Development Planning Unit), who co-founded the Sierra Leone Urban
Research Centre to support the development of wellbeing initiatives for residents
in informal settlements, and Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh
(UCL Migration Unit) who was recognised for her outstanding commitment to
promoting social justice for refugees.

Annabelle South
from UCL Professional Services was acknowledged for her
work communicating the results of the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials
Unit's studies, focused on cancer and infectious
diseases. Doctoral
researcher Nicola Anataki (UCL School of Architecture) was awarded for her work
with primary school students in India, where she
involved them in the construction of their learning environments. The
Eve Appeal won the Community Partner Award, for enabling the UCL
Institute for Women's Health to pursue its mission of reducing the burden of
women's cancer.

Team
Award - Know Your Normal (UCL Centre for Research in Autism and Education)

The 2018 awards ceremony is
part of a special anniversary year for UCL, which marks ten years since the UCL
Public Engagement Unit was established. The celebration formed an occasion for
the Provost to call on the UCL community to reflect on how we can further develop
public engagement over the next ten years.

Laura Cream, Head of Public
Engagement (UCL Culture), said, "The more diverse the communities we listen to
and audiences we engage with, the richer UCL, its research and teaching, will
be. I think the past ten years have shown our commitment to dialogue and
conversation, but there is still a lot more that we could and should be doing.

Now we want to hear your
thoughts about how we can develop public engagement at UCL in the future, and
what stepping stones can help us on the way to 2028. We hope staff and students
and our external partners will all join our conversation this year."

Staff, students and everyone
connected to UCL are invited to share their thoughts about the future of public
engagement at the university. UCL Culture will share its findings with the Provost and
the UCL Senior Leadership Team in 2019, and look forward to announcing the
outcomes publicly.

Join
the conversation online at ucl.ac.uk/culture/future.
Those involved in the UCL community are also invited to join a free event: Public engagement at UCL: Stepping stones to
the future on 20 June 2018 at 12.30. More information is available on the UCL Culture website.